Marilyn Monroe

Norma Jeane Mortenson

Everyone’s heard of the stereotype; blonde bombshell. Well no better woman to fit those shoes then the world famous Marilyn Monroe. Marilyn Monroe, was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926, in a Los Angeles General Hospital to Gladys Mortenson. Her birth certificate lists her father as unknown, and for the duration of her life he will stay unknown. Due to her mother’s unstable mental health, and the fact that she was not married at the time Norma Jeane was sent to live in foster care (The Mmm Girl).

Foster care was the only home life she had for her first seven years of life. She lived under the care of Albert and Ida Bolender. They were a very religious and strict family. Whenever she spoke of her child hood she would say they were the worst times of her life while she was living with them. They sheltered her, and did not let her do much of anything (The Mmm Girl).

In 1933 she moved back with her mom, Gladys for a brief period of time. However this was cut short in 1934 when her mother began to show signs of advanced mental depression. Gladys was admitted into a “rest home” in Santa Monica. Norma Jeane soon after got sent to live with her mother’s best friend Grace McKee. Grace loved Norma and would always tell her that someday she would be beautiful and a famous movie star (Wikipedia).

Grace was planning on getting married a year later and was running into some financial difficulties so Norma was sent to live in an orphanage. She lived there from September of 1935 until June 1937. During her stay, Grace visited her frequently bringing her clothes, and toys, and teaching her to put on makeup. Between 1937 and 1941 Norma bounced back and forth between living with Grace’s different family members (Wikipedia).

Finally in 1941 she was back to living with Grace. Although Grace and her husband were planning on moving to the East Coast, right around this time she was introduced to Jim Dougherty. Jim was five years older then her and Grace encouraged the courtship and then set up the wedding process. The marriage between Norma Jeane and Jim took place June 19, 1942 (Wikipedia).

The young bride worked in a factory inspecting parachutes for the war effort while her husband was sent overseas for the Marines. In 1944 while at work, she was photographed by David Conover. The photographs were to show the women’s contribution to the war effort. After taking those photos, David asked her if he could take more pictures of her (The Mmm Girl).

In the late spring of 1945 she was known as the photographers dream. Norma immediately began to be seen on the covers of 33 different national magazines. Her modeling career brought about the first of her many divorces when her husband returned home. Fall of 1946 Jim and Norma became divorced. While speaking of her divorce she stated that they hardly spoke, and not because they were mad at each other but because they had nothing to say, and she was extremely bored with him (The Mmm Girl).

July 23, 1946 brought about a new revelation for Norma. She signed a contract with 20th Century Fox, and started to launch her movie career. After this day she was known as Miss Marilyn Monroe to the world. She got the name Monroe from her mother’s family. This is also the year that she sang her first song in a motion picture, the song was called; Ladies of the chorus (Wikipedia).

Soon after this she got involved with a man named Johnny Hyde, from the William Morris Agency. Johnny became her mentor and her lover in 1949. He talked her into posing nude for a calendar, which obviously for the time period was very scandalous. This is how the controversy of Marilyn Monroe started. Her first serious acting job came in 1950 when she had a small but important role in "The Asphalt Jungle". She received favorable reviews for this movie and was thrilled. After this her motion picture career sky rocketed ( Wikipedia).

Marilyn’s next love interest would be Joe DiMaggio. She met him early on in 1952, he was just retiring from baseball. Joe was 37 years old and Marilyn was 25. This man would be the one man she says to have truly loved in her entire life (Wikipedia).

It was around this time that nude photos of Monroe began to show up, taken by photographer Tom Kelley when she had been struggling for work. Her Prints were bought by Hugh Hefner and in December 1953 they appeared in the first edition of his new magazine, Playboy. Even though people were worried that it might lead to a career-damaging controversy, Monroe decided to publicly admit it was indeed her posing in the pictures. To a journalist asking what she had on during the photoshoot, she replied: "The radio." When asked what she wore in bed, she said: "Chanel No. 5." Later on, both became iconic